Congress
‘Black mark’: Lawmakers seethe over Ethics’ Gaetz report imbroglio
Matt Gaetz is plunging the House into chaos, again.
Members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked over whether to release the findings of an investigation into the former Florida lawmaker, who is Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. The inaction is triggering outrage among Democrats, who argue the committee is dragging out the process, while Republicans remain furious that Gaetz put them in this position.
In a bid to force the release of the Ethics report, which is expected to cover several allegations, including that Gaetz had sex with a minor, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) are offering motions that would open up the decision to the full House.
Conservative allies of Trump and Gaetz are threatening retribution over such a move, but several Republicans are still insisting they want the report to come out. In a manifestation of the tumult, expelled Rep. George Santos, the recent subject of another Ethics Committee report, stopped by the Capitol to get in on the action.
“This is awful,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.). “It’s a black mark on the House of Representatives.”
The havoc is the latest illustration of how Trump’s looming return to Washington is shaking the foundations of Capitol Hill and forcing Republican lawmakers to make a series of immediate, high-stakes calls about the integrity of the legislative branch.
Several House and Senate Republicans want to see the report, a demand some of them reiterated after a Wednesday Ethics Committee meeting on the subject resulted in no clear action. Another panel meeting on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 5.
Asked if he would still want the report to be given to the Senate, even if Ethics Committee Republicans didn’t support releasing it, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said: “The Senate deserves to have it, so they can make a good decision.”
Meanwhile, Democrats do not plan to let the GOP bury the findings of the Gaetz investigation, and that strain could pose a serious threat to the Ethics Committee itself. Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel’s top Democrat, accused Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) of having “betrayed the process” by suggesting to reporters that the panel’s decision not to release the report was final.
Guest countered: “That’s her choice, if that’s what she feels.”
Internally, the panel doesn’t even seem to agree whether the Gaetz report is complete or still in draft form. Republicans publicly insisted the report wasn’t finished yet, though two people familiar with the process granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations countered that it was final. Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
Even before Guest announced to a swarm of reporters that the committee hadn’t reached an agreement on releasing the report, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) vowed to leapfrog House leadership and force a vote on the floor. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) then called Casten, according to a person familiar with the matter granted anonymity, and said he wanted to work together. Casten rejected the offer, so Cohen introduced his own motion to force a vote, leading to a floor pileup.
If Cohen’s and Casten’s efforts to force a vote are allowed to move forward — which is still unclear, since they might not meet the rules of a so-called privileged motion — they would either need support, or absences, from a handful of Republicans. While GOP members may want the report out, it’s unclear if they would back those efforts if they thought the Ethics panel was still working it out.
“I would hope that if you are at home and you are a Republican, a Democrat, an independent, that you would want to see the information on the nominee to become your attorney general or any other member of the Cabinet,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, adding that it was “not a good sign” that there is information the committee apparently doesn’t want released.
And California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, said Wednesday he would “support ranking member Wild” and her calls in recent days for the report to be public.
Though at least one Democrat was hesitant to support a bid to force the committee’s hand.
“This committee will become partisan if we vote to release a report on any member. And so that’s my concern,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who is friendly with Gaetz.
The hours-long Ethics Committee meeting and subsequent fury happened a week after Gaetz was tapped to be attorney general and abruptly resigned from the House. Gaetz told leadership that his decision to step down was tied to wanting to be able to fill his seat quickly, but dozens of his colleagues speculated that it was actually to avoid the release of the Ethics Committee’s report.
Even as some Republicans have clamored for the report to be made public, Gaetz allies argue many are seeking retribution against a former lawmaker — one who made a lot of enemies in the chamber, most notably when he orchestrated the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and left the House without a speaker for three tumultuous weeks.
“The Ethics Committee is not a fair investigation,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), who attended a Freedom Caucus meeting this week where Gaetz made an appearance to thank his allies. “I don’t think anybody believes what happens in the Ethics Committee is actually unbiased.”
And conservatives are threatening retribution of their own if Democrats successfully force a vote on the House floor to release the report, warning that it could pave the way for them to try to get Ethics reports involving current or former Democratic members. Those threats are unlikely to deter Democrats, who have been largely unified in wanting the Gaetz report to be released.
“If you release this report, then you know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Let’s start talking about releasing other reports,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said, adding that he would defer to the Ethics Committee.
“I think that would be a valid move,” echoed Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), when asked about the potential GOP countermove. “I mean, if they’re gonna try to dig up that sort of stuff, why not?”
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
Congress
House GOP leaders punt controversial FISA vote to April
House GOP leaders are punting a reauthorization vote for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that they had hoped to hold next week until mid-April, with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to discuss the conference dynamics.
GOP leaders are still dealing with a dozen or so Republican members who want reforms to the spy powers extension, as Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to pass a clean, 18-month extension without any changes. President Donald Trump has also asked for the clean extension.
Johnson and GOP leaders will instead work through the remaining issues over the upcoming two-week recess and try to put the extension on the floor the week of April 14, the people said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and a group of ultraconservatives have warned GOP leaders that the reauthorization would fail if Johnson tried to push it through next week.
Another House Republican told Blue Light News there was “no way” a rule to advance a clean FISA extension would pass next week.
Johnson can lose only two votes on a rule to advance the measure, and already a handful of GOP hard-liners have told Blue Light News they would oppose it.
The FISA reauthorization deadline is April 20, and the delay leaves barely any time for the Senate to act.
Congress
White House sends blueprint for national AI rules to Congress
The White House on Friday published a long-awaited policy wishlist for artificial intelligence regulation that it hopes Congress will codify into law.
The light-touch federal framework blends the Trump administration’s effort to create a national AI rulebook on issues like political bias within models and reducing barriers to innovation with protections for children and teens online.
It urges Congress to overrule state AI laws that the administration says “impose undue burdens,” in favor of the “minimally burdensome” federal law that it’s recommending. The Trump administration has been trying to establish preemption over state AI laws using Congress and executive order for roughly a year, arguing that the patchwork of laws harms AI innovation.
The blueprint explicitly calls on Congress to preempt any state laws that regulate the way models are developed or that penalize companies for the way their AI is used by others, and instructs U.S. lawmakers not to create any new federal agencies to regulate AI.
It also outlines some areas where the federal government’s laws wouldn’t overrule those of the states, and asks Congress to allow states to keep laws that protect children, including those that ban AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Trump administration officials have sought to gather support from Republican lawmakers for a light-touch approach to AI regulation in recent months. It’s unlikely, however, to receive bipartisan support in Congress.
Congress
Capitol agenda: Senate heads into a weekend grind
Get ready for a rare working weekend in the Senate with no break in sight.
Majority Leader John Thune is keeping senators at the Capitol the next few days to continue debating an all-but-doomed elections bill and advance nominees. Senators may have to work through the following weekend as well if the Department of Homeland Security is still shut down, threatening their planned two-week recess.
“I’m not excited about it,” one GOP senator told Blue Light News.
In the meantime, the Senate is expected to vote again Friday on a DHS funding bill that will fail.
— ‘SAVE’ action Saturday: Senators will likely vote Saturday on an amendment to the SAVE America Act that would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports — a demand from President Donald Trump that isn’t in the House-passed bill. The amendment will almost certainly fail to reach the necessary 60 votes, given Democrats are likely unified in their opposition. Keep an eye on which Republicans vote against the amendment.
The Senate could also consider Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s procedural gambit to force a vote that’s tangentially related to TSA funding. The effort would need 60 votes, meaning it will likely fail. Republicans could try to kill it before Saturday.
— Mullin vote Sunday: The Senate will then take its first vote on Sunday to move forward with Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-Okla.) nomination to become DHS secretary, after he cleared a committee vote Thursday morning.
Mullin should be on a glidepath to confirmation. Republican senators believe Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) beef is personal and doesn’t reflect a larger issue among GOP senators. The question is how many Democrats will vote for their soon-to-be former colleague as the DHS funding impasse goes on. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat who helped advance him out of committee.
The Senate will also vote likely Sunday to confirm Colin McDonald to be assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement.
— Recess at risk: Next week isn’t looking much better for the Senate schedule. Absent a DHS deal, Thune said Thursday the Senate won’t leave for its two-week recess.
“We’ll find out very quickly, I think, if the Dems want to make a deal,” Thune told Blue Light News Thursday night. “I think there’s deal space there. … We just got to find out how serious the Democrats are.”
A DHS funding agreement doesn’t appear likely any time soon. A group of bipartisan senators left a meeting with White House border czar Tom Homan Thursday afternoon with few signs of progress.
Thune said Republicans are waiting to see if rank-and-file Democrats can get “permission” to negotiate a DHS agreement, suggesting GOP senators see the path out of the shutdown through the same group that solved last year’s funding fight. But another person granted anonymity to discuss Thursday’s closed-door meeting said it wouldn’t enable Republicans to pick off one-or-two Democrats at a time.
“I’m glad the White House was here, but we are a long ways apart,” Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told reporters leaving the meeting.
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